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Thursday, 7 November 2013

What is Hoodia? A Natural Appetite Suppressant

So What Is Hoodia? Natural African Appetite Suppressant

The Kalahari Desert in southern Africa
is a harsh environment that is home to the Bushmen people. It is
always a struggle to stay alive in conditions of temperature extremes
(blistering hot by day, freezing at night), scant water, and scarcity
of game that are found in this challenging region. Hunger is often a
common condition with these people, but they discovered a way to
suppress the pangs when on a hunting expedition, and this was to chew
on the pulp from the stems of the Hoodia plant.

There are quite a few different
Hoodias, but the one used to prepared appetite suppressant
supplements is Hoodia gordonii, which is found throughout the region
of southern Africa. Although this Hoodia looks quite a bit like a
cactus, right down to a spiky exterior, it is actually a succulent.
It was probably hunger that drove the Bushmen at some point to try
eating what would otherwise not look like a very palatable plant,
especially since the flowers smell like rotten meat. Undoubtedly,
after a desperate experiment, it was found that the hunger pains
abated and the people in the group were able to continue in their
search for food more comfortably. Hoodia gordonii may help
suppresses thirst.

During an anthropological expedition to
the Kalahari Desert in 1937, it was discovered by the European
researcher that the objects of his study, the Bushmen, used Hoodia to
suppress their hunger. It was not until several decades later,
however, that research into this succulent really began into the
potential of this plant to aid with weight loss. Experiments with
animals did seem to yield positive results, and further testing
isolated an ingredient called P57. Although it was thought at first
that Hoodia was simply broken down by the body’s metabolism, it has
since been discovered that it will enter the bloodstream, allowing it
to act on the brain’s chemistry.

Although the
benefits of Hoodia in appetite suppression and weight reduction have
not been subjected to rigorous scientific trials, investigation into
the qualities of this plant is ongoing. Experiments with rats have
shown that those animals that were given Hoodia did eat less than
those that were not. It is thought that the active ingredient in
Hoodia, P57, does affect the ATP (adenosine triphosphate)** to cause
suppression of the appetite.

Breaking the cycle of continuous hunger
and cravings while dieting is one of the most important steps to
losing weight, and it is thought that Hoodia supplements could help
with sensible weight loss. Informal trials with people who need to
lose weight have shown that those who were given Hoodia rather than a
placebo did eat substantially less!